In a Facebook update posted on Saturday, Kate Sparks said the operation proved difficult due to the amount of scar tissue surrounding her sister’s old lungs.

However, surgeons were pleased with how the procedure went and Jessica was approaching her recovery with a positive attitude, despite severe chest pain following the operation.

“At present the ventilator has been removed and Jess is currently breathing on her own, with slight assistance from oxygen,’’ Kate writes. 

“This is a significant early milestone. After speaking to the doctors and surgeons they're happy with her progress in this area.”

Read Kate Sparks’ full post below.

Friday: Family, friends and supporters of Wollongong’s Jessica Sparks face an anxious wait as she undergoes her second double lung transplant at Sydney’s St Vincents Hospital.

Jessica was just 16 when she was diagnosed with end stage lung disease from cystic fibrosis, and underwent a lifesaving double lung transplant in July 2009.

However around 12 months ago, her body rejected the transplanted lungs leaving her hospital bound for much of the past year. Then – on Thursday – came the call that everyone on the transplant waiting list hopes for.

‘’On behalf of Jess, she would like to let you all know that she has finally received that much-awaited call and is currently undergoing her second double lung transplant,’’ sister Rachel Harris posted on social media.

‘’Jess went for a usual checkup today at St Vincent's and after returning home received the call to race back to the hospital as lungs had become available.

‘’… Jess is undergoing a massive and much more complicated surgery than her previous transplant. Please keep all fingers and toes crossed for her.

‘’We love you so much Jess and all our thoughts and prayers are with you –  keep fighting girl.’’

The 24-year-old has been an inspiration for many after starting her own organisation SparkingLife to boost organ and tissue donation in Australia.

Jessica’s determination and community service has seen her win a swag of awards and accolades, including being named the 2013 Wollongong Young Citizen of the Year.

In April, she gained the University of Wollongong’s top student prize when named the 2016 Chancellor Robert Hope Medallist.

At the time she told the Mercury that she intended to ‘’fight long enough to survive another transplant’’.

‘’Every student knows studying can have its challenges, I know life certainly has its challenges … but both really are a privilege,’’ Jessica said.

‘’And besides, challenges make life interesting, they give you strength. Churchill said ‘success isn’t final, failure isn’t fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts’ - I've worked very hard to do that.’’

Then –  on July 17 – the anniversary of her first transplant, Jessica made an emotional social media post.

‘’Seven years ago today I received the life-saving gift of new lungs and a new beginning,’’ she wrote.

‘’Part of me is devastated that their run is already coming to an end … but mostly I feel a sense of achievement and pride for my transplanted lungs.

‘’They thrived for six good years and then, even since being dealt an ultimately fatal blow of rejection over a year ago, they've done so well to hang in there all the way till now.’’

In the post, Jessica paid tribute to her donor and their family – and took the opportunity to again advocate for the cause that’s ever close to her heart.

‘’My lungs won’t make it to another anniversary, so I want to specially thank my donor family (and all donors and donor families) for saying ‘yes’ to organ donation and giving me the great opportunity that has been an extra seven years of life. 

‘’I'm so very thankful to them and all the incredible people I’ve had the privilege to meet, form friendships and do some really fantastic and fun things with in that time. Love you all!

‘’Thanks lungs, I couldn’t have done it without you. Keep up the fight for just a bit longer for me, so we can make it to another transplant. The rest of this body/mind/soul has a lot more life to live.’’

Jessica wrote this opinion piece for the Illawarra Mercury as an intern at the newspaper in 2012.

NSW has the lowest organ donation rate in Australia.

In fact, if NSW's performance was compared internationally, it would sit outside the top 30 in worldwide rankings, only ahead of countries such as Cuba and Belarus.

Last year, out of 215 potential organ donors in this state, only 77 actually donated. In some instances there may be medical reasons, but the majority of the remaining 138, an individual, most often a family member, said "no", sometimes overriding their deceased relative's wishes. 

As a result of such decisions, one in six people waiting for a donor - including many in the Illawarra - die before they receive the transplant that could have saved them.

People like my good friend Brittany, who at just 18 years old recently passed away while waiting for a lung transplant. She didn't deserve to die - she deserved to be given an opportunity to live.

An opportunity which, in a country such as ours, in a state such as ours, she should have had.

In late September, the NSW Parliament passed amendments to the legislation on organ and tissue donation in the state.

A standout of the strategy is the scrapping of the counterproductive driver's licence system of registration, in favour of Medicare's Australian Organ Donor Register as the central system of registration and consent across the country.

The plan also importantly focuses on systemic change through training specialist clinicians in our hospitals to better help families deal with decisions on organ donation.

The state government says it will provide guidelines for doctors to help them uphold a deceased patient's desire to be a donor. However, little will change here, as the family and next of kin continue to have the absolute power to decide and often say no, vetoing that patient's own decision to donate.

I commend any government that takes proactive steps towards increasing organ and tissue donation rates and raising awareness by having the issue on their agenda.

But as someone who is passionately invested in this cause, I feel it could have gone further.

The strategy could have been bigger and bolder, to better enhance our donation system to world's best practice and results.

The people needing a transplant don't have the luxury of waiting for gradual change.

They are the ones I speak and fight for - I've been in that desperate situation myself. But while I was fortunate enough to be saved by a transplant, so many like Brittany aren't.

We each have a moral interest in this - you or someone close to you is actually far more likely to need a donated organ than to ever end up donating yourselves.

This means we cannot be complacent about organ donation.

People power will make the real difference to the levels of organ donation we need to see in NSW - more than any law.

It is up to every person to talk about donation with those close to them and share the gift of life by being an organ and tissue donor.